As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As processors, graphics cards, random access memory (RAM) and other components in information handling systems have increased in clock speed and power consumption, the amount of heat produced by such components as a side-effect of normal operation has also increased. Various heat-rejecting media may be used to cool heat-generating components, including fluids (e.g., air via a fan, liquid via a pump-connected liquid conduit) conveyed proximate to the components, thermally-conductive solids (e.g., heatsinks, heat pipes, heat spreader plates, etc.) coupled to such components, or a combination thereof. In some instances, it is often beneficial that a heat-rejecting medium is shared among multiple components. For example, in an information handling system, a heat-rejecting medium may be used to cool both a processor and a co-processor (e.g., graphics processor).
Such heat-rejecting media are often thermally coupled to an exhaust which exhausts heated air to an outside of an enclosure for housing components of an information handling system in order reduce operating temperatures of components. Increasingly, designs of information handling systems and their associated enclosures enable a user to, either intentionally or unintentionally, touch the exhaust including heat-rejecting media (e.g., finstacks) thermally coupled to the exhaust. An information handling system exhaust may reach a temperature that may become unsafe or uncomfortable for a user to touch. Accordingly, systems and methods for managing the exhaust temperature of an information handling system are desirable. Existing approaches require a closed loop control using dedicated exhaust temperature sensors to directly measure or infer surface temperature in order to thermally manage an information handling system. However, use of such dedicated sensors is often undesirable, as it often requires attaching a temperature sensor to an exhaust using an adhesive, and such temperature sensor may be highly susceptible to damage.